Shining Through . . . What would you do to make this a better photo?

[Kathy O]

The sun setting through the trees, it was just begging me to take its picture What would you do to make this a better photo, I use Lightroom 5. I think the sun is very cool, but the rest of the photo lacks a little something in my opinion. Thank you for your input.

Nikon 7100
55mm
f/22
1/40 sec
ISO 1250

I had been shooting around experimenting with ISO's and forgot to change the ISO on this photo before I shot it, I have never shot with an ISO this big.

[Stagecoach]

What would you do to make this a better photo,

Kathy,

Not sure I would say I could make it 'better' but I could make it different

In ACR I dropped the overall highlights and brightness, bought out the shadow and increased the highlight brightness of the area where the suns ray has caught the foreground. Slight clarity and a basic sharpen.



Toggle between the two in the lytebox.

The reasoning behind what I did was because I'm sure the viewer, you, could see detail in those areas that show on your original as very dark and devoid of detail. In addition, I tried to think what the angle of the light would be hitting, e.g, far bank being in shadow as opposed to foreground right.

Grahame

[jcuknz]

The problem started in the camera when you did not step half a pace o your right and put the sun behind the thicker pair of trunks. On the other hand if you had done that you might not have got the star effect, I don;t know because I always hide the sun. In PSP I simply used the 'Fill Flash' tool which resulted in a similar result to Grahame except the ice is cleaner and whiter, with a final sharpening [ 'Sharpen More' which usually brings things up nicely ]

[Stagecoach]

What this image does demonstrate is that by being exposed well in camera, as it was, there is scope for doing much without loss due to clipped areas.